58.0% New York, 22.9% Washington: A Crypto Panel Needs Both Cities

A general counsel choosing among crypto law firms should look first at where the work is done. Sartori & Partners data show that lawyers in New York worked on 58.0% of digital asset and crypto deals in the 12 months to October 2026, the highest New York share of any sector we track. Washington, DC came second, with lawyers there on 22.9% of the sector's deals. The sector is small, at 300 deals in 12 months, or 0.6% of all deals, yet its work gathers in two East Coast cities more tightly than technology or fintech work does. Financial services regulatory lawyers appear on 12.7% of crypto deals, against 0.5% across the market, and the deal count was flat over the year. A crypto company's outside counsel sits in New York and Washington, and a panel without a regulatory voice in Washington is incomplete.

The New York share in crypto runs 19.3 points above technology and software, where lawyers in New York worked on 38.7% of deals. It also clears fintech and payments, at 43.6%, and asset management and funds, at 41.3%. Each share takes the deals of a sector with at least one known lawyer location and asks how many had lawyers from that city working on them. One deal often draws lawyers from several cities, so the shares overlap and are never added together. In plain counts, 152 crypto deals had New York lawyers on them over 12 months.

The side-by-side view also shows where crypto work is thinner. London lawyers worked on 13.7% of crypto deals against 18.4% of fintech and payments deals, and San Francisco lawyers on 11.8% against 18.1% in technology and software. Chicago, at 11.8%, runs above its fintech share of 6.3%. For a crypto company the practical reading is simple: shortlist firms whose crypto deal lawyers sit in New York, and treat a pitch run from another office as the exception it is in this sector.

Lawyers in Washington, DC worked on 22.9% of crypto deals in 12 months. The same city appears on 18.4% of fintech and payments deals and 19.6% of technology and software deals, so Washington carries more weight in crypto than in either neighboring sector. Of the sectors compared here, only asset management and funds shows a higher Washington share, at 27.0%. Both sectors deal in financial products that draw federal regulatory attention, and both send a larger part of their legal work to the city where the federal regulators sit. Sartori & Partners data count 60 crypto deals with Washington lawyers on them over the year. The consequence for a panel is direct: name a Washington partner who owns the regulatory side, rather than relying on a New York deal lawyer who calls a colleague when a question comes up.

Financial services regulatory lawyers appeared on 38 crypto deals in 12 months, or 12.7% of the sector's deals. Across all deals the same practice appears on 0.5%, so crypto calls on it at many times the market's share. Fintech and payments, the nearest sector, sits at 5.9%. Both shares are rounded and the crypto count is modest, so read the gap as a size rather than a precise multiple.

The other practices on crypto deals also run above the market. Capital markets lawyers appear on 37.7% of crypto deals against 26.4% across all deals, and litigation and disputes lawyers on 9.0% against 3.7%. Each share divides by every crypto deal, including deals with no practice recorded, so the figures are read one at a time. The regulatory line is the one a general panel most often misses. Corporate and capital markets lawyers are easy to find in any large firm; a lawyer who knows where securities, commodities and banking rules meet a digital asset offering is much harder to find.

By deal type, capital markets deals appear on 38.0% of crypto deals against 25.7% of all deals, and M&A on 23.3% against 19.3%. Disputes and investigations run the other way, at 15.0% against 25.0% market-wide. A value was disclosed on 18.3% of crypto deals, against 32.0% in fintech and payments, so price benchmarks for crypto work rest on fewer public figures.

Volume did not follow the market. The crypto deal count held flat (-8.9%), with 328 deals in the latest settled 12 months against 360 the year before, while the count across all deals rose 10.6%. A steady year means the same firms face about the same crypto workload as a year ago. Plan panel capacity on the current level of work, and do not expect firms to have added crypto lawyers because the wider deal market grew.

Latham & Watkins advised on the most digital asset and crypto deals in 12 months, in the 21-40 band, and Davis Polk & Wardwell came second, in the 11-20 band. The list across all deals opens with the same two names, Latham & Watkins and Davis Polk & Wardwell. Below them the crypto list is spread thin: from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati down, every firm sits in the 6-10 band. With 300 deals for 167 distinct clients in the year, no single firm holds a large slice of the sector.

Bands are ranges of deals advised, so the list is a starting point for a shortlist, not a ranking to the deal. In Sartori & Partners data the sector's work clusters in New York, where lawyers worked on 58.0% of crypto deals: ask each firm on the list which of its crypto matters were staffed from New York, and which Washington partner handled the regulatory questions. Our companion report on crypto lawyers who change firms follows where that bench moves; this one follows where the deal work is done.

Put the deal team in New York. Lawyers there worked on 58.0% of crypto deals, against 38.7% in technology and software, so a firm that would run your financing from another office works against the grain of the sector.

Name the Washington lawyer at the start. With Washington lawyers on 22.9% of crypto deals and financial services regulatory lawyers on 12.7%, against 0.5% market-wide, the regulatory voice belongs inside the deal team, not on a later call.

Weigh capital markets depth for routine work. Capital markets deals appear on 38.0% of crypto deals and disputes on 15.0%, so a contested enforcement matter calls for a separate litigation line rather than the financing team.

Expect the busiest firms to stay busy. The crypto deal count held flat (-8.9%) across the latest settled year, so ask for named partners and their current crypto load before you sign an engagement letter.